tardar

Forms

tardar (first-person singular present tardo, first-person singular preterite tardei, past participle tardado)^[1] Houaiss records the old verb forms tardasti and tardaua in the 14th century and tardase in the 15th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tardō (“to delay, to hold back”), written Old Galician-Portuguese tardar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb was formed from the adjective tardus (“slow”).^[5][6]

The same Latin verb is Galician tardar, Spanish tardar, Catalan tardar, Occitan tardar, French tarder and Italian tardare.^[7][1] Corominas notes that it is found in all the western Romance languages and in Spanish from the earliest texts.^[8]

De Vaan finds no etymology for the adjective: the comparison with a Greek word for “weak” and a Sanskrit word for “young” is unconvincing in meaning and impossible in form.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cunha and Houaiss date the verb to the 13th century.^[3][2] In the Cancioneiro da Ajuda it means “to come late, to keep someone waiting”, and the cantigas d'amigo already use the infinitive as a noun in sem outro tardar “without further delay”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

In the cantigas the verb is nearly always intransitive;^[10] Universo Cantigas finds only one line where it takes an object, a lover's death that he asks not to be put off for long.^[10] The Galician Crónica Troiana already uses it both ways, “to delay (something)” and “to be slow”.^[9]

The early dictionaries render it with the Latin verbs of lingering and delaying (moror, cunctor), and Bluteau defines it as putting something off so that it is not done in its time.^[11][12][13] Morais (1789) adds the sense of not arriving or not happening within the time expected.^[14] Followed by a and an infinitive it now marks an action that is slow to begin, much like demorar a.^[15][2]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records of the verb.^[3][2]
• 14th century – the forms tardasti and tardaua.^[2]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) uses the verb.^[16]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin cesso and moror.^[11]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau records sem tardar “without delay”.^[13]
• 1755 – Folqman's example has ao mais tardar “at the latest”.^[17]
• 1789 – Morais defines it as not coming or not happening in the expected time.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To postpone or delay something: tardar a resposta.^[2][18][19]
2. (intransitive) To be late, to come late or take long to come: O comboio tardou.^[2][20][21]
3. (with a or em and an infinitive) To take a long time to do something, to be slow to: Não tardou a chover.^[2][15][22]
4. (intransitive) To linger, to stay a long time in a place.^[2][20]
5. (intransitive) To act slowly, to be in no hurry.^[2][19]

Related words

• tarde
• retardar
• Latin tardus
• Galician tardar

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include sem mais tardar “without further delay, at once”, o mais tardar “at the latest” and não tardar “to be about to come”.^[2][21] In Portugal tardar a fala a alguém means to stammer.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. tardar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. tardar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. tardar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8572
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 417
9. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. tardar
10. ^ a b c Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. tardar
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tardar
12. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tardar
13. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tardar
14. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 445
15. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. tardar
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. tardar
17. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. tardar
18. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. tardar
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. tardar
20. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. tardar
21. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8828
22. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. tardar